Marcus_Ti

The later bold bit.

A car hitch is designed for a tongue weight load specifically like a bike rack, and it is structurally attached intimate to the car...no car maker designs a car body thinking about having a bike rack suction cupped to it. I certainly wouldn't trust it to not muck up my car or drop my bikes at highway speed. Anecdotes about it being fine aside.

I'm actually amazed the NHTSA or similar body doesn't call foul on them.

jad3675

Fair enough - but car roofs' are rated for rollover protection - usually 4x the weight of a vehicle. Yeah, the roof is at most 18g steel so an adult sitting on the roof could dent it, but at worst you'd have a 40lb bike on there?

What's the chance of some plastic/rubber/nylon bit on the hitch rack breaking and dropping your bike or causing damage? At this point, the safest way to transport your bike would be inside the vehicle. It's all about acceptable risk, right?

John

mstateglfr 

To be consistent, you apply this reasoning to everything else that youve seen break once, right?

If it can happen to one, it can happen to multiple frames.
If it can happen to one, it can happen to multiple wheels.
If it can happen to one, it can happen to multiple tires.
etc etc etc.

WhyFi

Except none of these are even redundancy situations so, for example, if there's a 5% failure rate (which would probably be absurdly high) and there are two such mechanisms (and only one was necessary), you're looking at a risk of 5% of 5% or .25%.

Marcus_Ti

Not exactly. The frame is rated that high. Sheet metal is just that. OIt also depends on the vehicle a bit--many newer vehicles are moving to a 'unibody' construction where the sheet metal at the rims is formed to also be the frame, in order to cut down on weight and improve efficiency...but even those you can distort the metal away from the rims with your hands, simply pushing lightly.

mstateglfr 

Creative. Im sure he appreciates the effort.

BHG6

Can't speak for that specific rack but if it's anything like the Seasucker, it should be pretty impressive. Mine was put to the test many times at speeds considerably higher than posted speed limits and never had an issue.

In all honesty, though, I wouldn't have chosen a suction cup rack if a more conventional solution was available for my car. You have to be very careful about cleaning the surfaces before you attach the rack or you risk scratching the #*#& out of your car. You also have to remove the thing every time you park your car or someone will walk off with it as soon as you step away.

Princess_Allez

I just received the sucker kit. I washed the car and sprayed the cups with water before attaching them. I'm doing an overnight test for adhesion. The amount of suction/vaccum force is impressive. I tugged and pulled from multiple directions and angles and no give; the car just rocks back 'n forth. I figure I'll keep a bottle of quick detailer and microfiber towel with the suction kit. That way I'm never without.

trekmogul 

Love my Seasuckers also... I have about 6 of them in all different combos..

trekmogul 

you will love it..If its anything like the Seasucker, you will not be unhappy..

Princess_Allez

Suction cups passed the overnight test with flying colors. Now time to sack up and transport the bike [fingers crossed]... will update with [horror/positive news] story.

BHG6

It takes a while to overcome the anxiety at first I slapped an old p.o.s bike on top and ran it up to 130 out in the desert just to see if it would stay on the roof. Thing held on like a possessed ex-girlfriend....

Princess_Allez

that should be the slogan for all sucker bike racks, "holds on like a possessed ex-gf or your money back [not really]!"

RiceAWay

I'm sure that you could get the to work well for awhile. At least until the synthetic rubber begins to harden At this time it simply wouldn't hold a vacuum for very long. As for that drag strip commercial - notive that the suckers are down on the windshield glass? Glass is a much less porous surface and so it would have a tighter hold. There's no way I'm putting my $5,000 bike on such a rack.

Princess_Allez

In theory, you are correct, however, these sucker racks claim to be uv resistant. Since the rack isn't left on the roof, exposed to uv radiation all day, I think it'll be fine. That was definitely a concern of mine. Another concern would be mounting the suction cups during a damp morning and leaving them attached throughtout the day, exposed to the extreme heat of summer. If you fail to re-prime the suction, it could fail or become less effective. That's a very unlikely situation for me though.

trekmogul 

I have had one of my Seasuckers for over 10 years and never ever have I had any issues with the "RUBBER DRYING UP">..! I put $20,000.00 Bicycles on them with no reservation what so ever..

trekmogul 

You will never use it enough or keep it on the vehicle long enough to damage or hurt it for sure..Just use it and enjoy as you will love it..

trekmogul 

Took my Seasucker to Dubai and they Hotel Car took me out to the Cycling track in the desert at over 100+MPH with my Zipp Super9 Disc Wheel on the rear ..No problem in 42C+ Temps..

JohnJ80

We have a SeaSucker rack that we bought for when we do air travel with our bikes and for use on rental cars. It's worked just fine and it's got visual indicators if the cups are losing suction. Since we have the two bike rack, it has four cups across the top and only two are needed to hold it. We've had it up to 75mph with no issues and I'm confident in it for our use case. That said, I don't think I'd use it for my full time rack or not. We take the rack off at every trailhead so it doesn't get stolen which is a pain but it works great for travel especially when we don't know what car we'll get when we rent. FWIW, our bikes are both custom frame gravel bikes, so we're putting a lot of money up on that rack. Our standard rack at home is the QuikRStuff hitch rack (which is awesome).

I did a lot of research on it and looked at the Rock Brothers one. I didn't like that all the cups are in a line instead of offset like they are on the SeaSucker rack. My thought (I'm an engineer so I obsess over this stuff) is that it would lend itself much easier to fore aft movement and not have the multipoint stability that would come from the offset mount. And, because of the engineering involved, I preferred to have the original rack from Sea Sucker instead of the knockoff version. Knockoffs never have the same knowledge as the guys that developed it in the first place.

Princess_Allez

I was thinking that there must be some logic behind the design/placement of the Seasucker cups. I assume it's for redundancy and overkill. It's more reassuring having 3 cups vs just 1 and it helps justify the price.

trekmogul 

Here is the top end SEASUCKER BIKE RACK and you can see how off set these cups can be adjusted to..One heck of a sweet rack..

JohnJ80

I think this sums it up - there is engineering in how the whole thing is configured. With suction cups, I can very much see how having them offset so that no two cups ever see the same shear forces at the same time and having extra cups is definitely an advantage.

With the RockBros Rack, all the cups are in a line so they all experience the same forces at the same time especially in the fore/aft direction. So that is a major issue in my opinion since that’s the direction that you’re going to see issues from braking, acceleration and in the even of the most common fender bender style of accidents.

This sort of rack does require more attention than a bolt on rack. Anytime there is a change in altitude (air pressure change) or temperature change, it’s a good idea to check it. The SeaSucker rack has a red line on the vacuum pump that if it shows means it’s losing suction.

Like I said, we use ours for use on rental cars when we travel with our bikes. For that it works great and in several trips with maybe more than a thousand miles of driving with the bikes on the rack, we’ve never had a problem. So for that application, it’s without peer, I think and we’d recommend it.

The biggest aggravation with it is that I feel I need to remove it from the car before we ride away from the trailhead. There is a window and locking cable that can be attached and I may look into that. Either way, you can have the rack off the car in under 30seconds if you know what you’re doing.

Princess_Allez

I love the cnc work and anodized look of the top-tier sea sucker. It looks like a komodo dragon. Its suggested use is for cars without roofs (convertibles), but can be used on any car; very nifty product, but very overkill.

WhyFi

That's what it's named.

trekmogul 

I travel the world with a seasucker and bike in my luggage at all times. Should have already left for Sri Lanka but not allowed in still.. Here is a few shots